//------------------------------// // 1. Cafe // Story: The Tournament of Chaos: By the Light of the Sun // by Crimson Trident //------------------------------// I stood vigil over the pedestal, as still and silent as a statue. It was an easy thing to do since, well… I am a statue. One thousand years ago I took up this position as guard for one of the most powerful magic artifacts in all the land, promising my Lady that I would be here when her sister returned from her fated banishment. Really though, all I had to do is stand here looking stoic until the sister came back. Then, I’ll unpetrify, give a speech about how the darkness will never overcome the light, yada yada yada, and if need be fight her off. Piece of cake. Or… Maybe not. The millennium of abandonment had left the Everfree Castle in a bit of a rough shape. And by a bit of a rough shape I mean half of the entire structure is destroyed by time and weather, and the other half looks like it might collapse if somebody looks at it wrong. Every carpet and tapestry were horribly frayed and bug-eaten, and the gold ornaments have long since tarnished. And at the center of it all, my stone body, standing beneath the collapsed ceiling and exposed to the elements, has cracked and chipped. I honestly don’t know what condition my flesh and bone body would be in should I unpetrify now. I blame Luna and her lapdog. Sigh. I still remember how this whole situation started. Care to listen? ... Who am I even talking to? Let’s go back, 1,009 years before. I was in a pretty good mood, all things considered. I stayed up super late last night, practicing for an upcoming esports tournament with the guys. Third place isn’t terrible, considering the caliber of players we were up against in the last tourney, but this time we’re aiming for the top spot. So, with bags under my eyes and sore legs, because I don’t trust myself to drive sleep-deprived, I pushed through the door into the coffee shop. I’d never gone to this one specifically -it’s not really on my route- but it was close enough and I know a guy who works here. The sight of the absolutely crowded interior only put a slight damper on my mood. I stood in line for what had to be an hour before I finally got to order -the guy I know wasn’t behind the counter today-  then sat down at one of the small tables that lined the outside walls of the shop as I waited for the barista to call out my order. I passed the time with some people-watching. A few tables down, a guy was typing away on his laptop, and had a stack of notebooks next to him. Probably a student. At the same table, sat sideways in the chair and scrolling through images on her phone, was a girl with outrageously red hair. Standing in line was a guy with one of those overly-specific shirts you sometimes see in popup ads. Can’t tell if he thought it was good enough of a joke to actually buy, or he made it himself. There were two guys standing right next to the pickup counter. One of them was completely average, while the other one looked straight out of a knockoff Seuss book. He wore a tailored suit, but every segment of it was mismatched, and a top hat, and he’d shaved off half of his mustache and goatee on alternating sides, leaving his face incredibly uneven. “Hey can I sit here?” “Huh?” I looked up. The man standing there was garbed in a blue hoodie and had mid-length straight, bronzish hair that hung down and covered his face. His chin was covered in a patch of hair that I wouldn’t quite call a beard. “Oh, sure. I’m not with anyone.” “Cool.” He sat down in the other chair at the table and rested his elbow on it, whipping out his phone and scrolling through images on it. Every couple of seconds his icy-blue eyes would flick over to me. Already this guy was giving me weird vibes. Not quite as weird of vibes as the mismatched guy. Speaking of him… “Attention! Attention everyhuman!” Came a voice I could swear I’ve heard somewhere before, then a thump as he jumped onto the counter. I was distracted from the odd lingo he’d just used, when I tried to look up at him and found I couldn’t move at all. “It has been an honor- Nay! A pleasure- to visit your little universe once more. I got caught up on all the things I was missing, and even got to update my Jokes and References book. But alas, all good things must come to an end. Do not despair, as I will be taking you all with me!” This can’t end well. “Without further adieu, welcome one and all… to Equestria!” As he finished his speech, the sound of a finger snap rang throughout the shop. It took me about as much time to realize I could move again, as it took for me to realize I was falling. “AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” The guy who was sitting next to me was falling too, flailing his limbs and screaming his head off. I couldn’t see -or hear- anyone else, so it was just me and him. Far below, I could see a lake in the middle of a forest clearing, fast approaching. “SHUT UP!” I yelled over his panicked scream and the rushing wind. “Stiffen your arms and legs, you’ll fall slower!” I’ve never gone skydiving before, but common sense and movies dictate that spreading yourself out increases drag and you fall slower. I did, however, know that no matter what speed you fall, hitting water is never as pleasant as jumping in from ground-level. He managed to stop screaming right before he bellyflopped into the lake with a sound like someone getting slapped, except about ten times as loud. I curled into a ball, pinching my nose with the thumb and index finger on my left hand, and hit the surface turned slightly to the side. I sank to the bottom with an intense pain in my left shoulder and hip. The lake was deep enough that I hit the bottom gently, and when I did I immediately scrambled back up to the surface, gasping for air. My companion in this strange situation was a bit worse for wear, crawling up the bank and puking his guts out. “Are you alright over there?” I asked. “I’m… fine.” He said between heavy breaths. I swam to the bank and pulled myself out of the water, then flopped onto my back, holding my shoulder. “What… the hell is… going on.” “Do I look like I know?” I bit back, jaw tight from the pain. “This is all that… that guy’s doing.” He wiped his mouth with a sleeve and stood up, walking over to me. His mouth was stuck slightly agape, and his eyes were half-lidded. He swung an arm forward and bent over slightly to offer it to me. I took it, and he helped me move over to a tree, to sit against it. I untied my shoes and tore off my sopping wet socks. He didn’t seem bothered by his. Probably wasn’t even wearing any. “I can’t keep calling you “guy” and “him” in my head.” I said. “Beck. My name’s Beck.” He introduced himself. “Leo.” We stayed there for a couple of minutes in silence, air drying. Finally, I stood up, pain mostly gone, and slipped back into my shoes. I looked up at the sky; The sun was starting its descent. “We can’t stay here.” “The hell not?” He challenged. “You ever been stuck out in the woods at night?” I shot him a glance. He backed down rather easily, turning his head away. “That’s what I thought. We should head south. I didn’t get a good look while we were falling, but I think I saw something not-forest that way.” Beck didn’t say anything else, but started walking perpendicular to the setting sun past me. I quickly started after him. The forest got exponentially darker as both the sun’s light dimmed, and the canopy got thicker and thicker. There was no clear path through the forest, but we did our best to avoid most of the denser patches of underbrush. Still though, my pant legs only lasted until they dried out before getting torn to shreds. Even once the sun had completely set, we still wandered through the forest. The light of the full moon filtered through the leaves, casting everything in a bluish-white glow. “Well looks like we’re stuck in the woods at night.” Beck said bitterly. “How far was this ‘not-forest’ thing anyways?” “It couldn’t have been this far. We should be at it already, unless we started walking in circles or something.” “I’ve been marking a tree every couple of feet. We’re not going in circles.” “Marking them with what?” I stopped, and turned to face him. He held up a hand and flicked open a pocket knife. Its blade glistened rather brightly in the moonlight, making me wonder why I hadn’t noticed him marking any trees with it. “And you didn’t tell me you had that earlier?” “No reason to.” He stepped around me and continued walking. “No reason to?!” I sputtered. “We’re only out here surviving in the forest!” “Tou- ow!” Beck stopped, having run face-first into a wall. He took a step away from it, rubbing his forehead. I walked over to the wall and ran a hand over it. It was made of rectangular stones held together with what felt like hardened clay. “That wall wasn’t there a second ago.” I looked back the way we came from. “Where was the last tree you marked?” “Just a few back on the right.” “Got it.” I walked away from the wall, feeling along the trees below shoulder level for cuts on their bark. I felt up at least ten trees and found nothing, so I returned to Beck. “Unless you were lying about marking trees, we’re definitely not in the same spot we-” “Shhhhh!” Beck shushed me. He was kneeling down next to the wall, and replaced his ear to it. “Wha-” “Shh.” Instead of continuing to try and ask what he was doing, or just standing there looking like an idiot, I joined him in kneeling by the wall. As I brought my head close to the wall I could hear, very faintly, singing. It was barely audible at all, but nonetheless petrifyingly beautiful. The voice sounded young, but had either an unnatural talent, or age beyond years of experience behind it. In that moment I knew I absolutely must know who or what was the source of this sound. I felt along the wall, and soon found a good enough handhold to start with. I stuck the toe of one of my shoes into it and began climbing. The wall didn’t go above the canopy, but there weren’t any trees on the other side of it either, so as I reached the top and reached both arms fully over the wall, I could see an orangish-yellow light, like from a fire. I maneuvered my body on top of the wall, finding it quite thin -thin enough that my shoes hung off both sides slightly. From up here the singing was much clearer, but as I peered down, I still couldn’t see who was singing! The courtyard was obscured by a curtain of steam wafting up off a pool, which I could see the edges of where torchlight cut through it. As I was contemplating jumping or climbing down, the stone I was perched on gave way, making that decision for me. I tumbled against the wall and landed hard on my butt, sending a tingling, numb feeling up my spine. When I noticed that the singing had stopped, I cracked open one eye. I then beheld a small white horse -no, unicorn, staring back at me with wide eyes larger than any creature had any right to possess. A pink mane hung in wet clumps, framing its… face? Is there a special word for the “face” of an animal, or is it just face? Anyways, pink mane, because what other color would you expect a mythical animal to be, framing its face perfectly, and the slight bit of red across its muzzle was not lost to me. It seemed like we could both only stare at each other in surprise, until- “GUARDS! GUARDS!” She screamed, scrambling backwards away from me.